Brushes, and even fine art paintbrushes, have been in use for centuries as an ordinarily understood tool for applying various liquid and powder substances for surfaces, including adhesives and coatings and paints and cosmetics. Historically, bristles are the most common method of applying paint, as a tuft comprising a multitude of bristles can deflect as a single contact region to follow the face of a surface on which to apply paint, and scribe a track having a controllably consistent thickness and width. The spaces between the bristles provide a floating volume in which paint may be retained, such that evenly laid strokes may be longer and so that successive strokes may be made, without reapplying paint to the brush as often.
However, the bristles themselves also provide limitations. While bristles are able to deflect to follow a surface, they also push against one another as they deflect, and as a result, under many circumstances, such as a painter becoming fatigued against the effort of maintaining even stroke pressure, bristles may bend laterally away from the direction of application. As the bristles migrate laterally, the tuft of the bristles becomes wider, and strokes made by the brush widen and become inconsistent. This widening and loss of consistency is called splay. The problem which results from splay is that during use of a paintbrush experiencing splay, the wider and less consistent strokes cause paint to be deposited in unwanted areas on the work. This not only irritates an artist, as it then requires effort to remedy the error, but also, in extreme cases, can ruin the work beyond repair.
While the above is an example of splay arising from ordinary limitations of bristles during diminishing quality of control of the painter, another cause of splay arises cumulatively with respect to the lifetime fatiguing of the brush, rather than the painter. Paint which accumulates in the volumes within a tuft of bristles, and which dries in place, without being fully washed out, forces the bristles away from one another. This eventually results in splaying of the tuft of bristles, which progresses simply by cumulative ordinary use.
Yet another drawback of current paintbrushes is that ordinary brushes can be not-optimally balanced for a particular artist, which can cause fatigue. In typical paintbrushes of the art, the degree of imbalance is a function of a paint handle length (and weight), the ferrule, bristles, and the amount of paint on the bristles, relative to the ideal balance point for the painter. In the circumstance of fine art painting, artists will frequently paint using multiple paintbrushes. In such case, the problem is how to safely store said paint laden brushes while not in use, so as to not damage the bristles, and to avoid the transfer of paint to other brushes, as well as surfaces and objects that are not intended to receive paint.”
In view of the foregoing, the present invention achieves an improved paintbrush according to the following objects.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved paintbrush that has little to no bristle-splaying.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved paintbrush with improved balance.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved paintbrush which can be easily retained in a manner that prevents transfer of paint between the brush and other brushes or surfaces.